Stabilization of transmission lines



Oct. 2, 1928. 1,685,993. C. J. FECHHEIMER V STABILIZATION 0F TRANSIISSION LINES- Filed Jan, 23,. 1923 I II line Va/fa e Line Vo/fage WITN 5 ES: INYENTR M rar/ J, Fechhe/mqr 3 Z YBY 4 7-A'TT0RNEY Patented 2.192s;

UNITED STATES PATENT/OFFICE t l I .I l a I I I OABINJL-I'ICmIIEB, OI PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ABBIGHOB WESTING- HOUSE mCTBIG &

VANIA. 7

mxm me comm; .a-oonromnou or PENNSYL- s'rnmrza'rron or rmsnrssrou Lnma.

Application fled January :3, 1m. Serial in. 014,371;-

My invention relates to transmission lines and it has articular relation to methods and apparatus or utilizing synchronous alternat-- ing-current machines to limit the voltage on hig h-reactance transmission lines.

he principal .object of my invention is to provide a novel method and apparatus whereby :the voltage-of highly reactive transmis-.

I s1on lines may be reduced or. controlled by I happens; that the leading a means of a synchronous machine without unduly increasing the kilovolt-ampere overload of the machine, the inventionconsistingin changing the shape of thesaturation curve without resorting to negative field-magnet excitation. s 1

With these and other objects in view, my invention relates to details of ap aratus and described in the applied to anautomatic-regulatingsystem, and Figs. 2 and 3 are curvediagrams' illustrating the operative principle.

In controllin the voltage of long hi hvoltage transmission lines'by means '0 a 7 single synchronous machine, it frequently drawn by the line .is so the field ma ets of the machine to be reversed in or erto prevent'the volta or er to tie in other synchronousap aratus at a distant point and in such cases, it as frefrom reachin abnormallyhigh values an greatlyover oading the machine.

I Furthermore; it sometimes sa to reduce the voltage of-the line .in

qusntly been very difliqult' to obtain the necessary reduced voltage without employing more than one machine at thecontrolling station. If the excitation of the synchronous 4. machine is controlled by varying thevoltage t e .of an exciter or group of exciters and excitation voltage is reduced to zero in order. to control the line voltage, a sudden increase in load on the line may cause the synchronous machine. toull out of step and operate as chronous y as an induction machine. urthermore; if a negative excitation is -a plied to the exciting windin it, is svs1 e reversed and the voltage will then buildup to wattless current rge. as to require i to build becomes neces,

that a point ofi'nstability willbe'reac ed wherein the polarity of the machine'may be a very high value with the reversed polarity. The operation of asynchronous machine under such circumstances is illustrated in Fig; 2 whereinris sho-wnthesatur'ation curve of a' synchronous machine, the terminal voltage b'eing lotted against, the field excitation, When t e machine is supplying lead:v mg wattless current, the armature reaction w produces an excitation which may be plotted as an equivalent field excitation and the curve shown 1n Fi 2 may thus be taken to represent ;the line volta e of a transmission line having high con ensive reactance com' nected across the te'rmlnals of an unexclted *curveof the machine and the straight line field excitation, it will be obvious that the "linevoltagehas a fixed value determined by the intersection of thetwo curves ahd that the operation is stable. tempt is made to voltage A near the eeof the curve or below the knee of. the curve, a negative field being emplo ed for this purpose, it will be evident that t e operation is not stable, since'the slightest departure of the conditions froman exactl perfect balancebetween the ter-- minal vo tage of the machine and the line I voltage corresponding to the same equivalent If, however, an atiplerate the machine at'a field excitationwill causethevoltage either 'ity to a very high value indicated at E.

'In. -order, to overcome this objectionable operation, I have adopted' the expedient of c angin the shape of the characteristic curve 0 the machine in order to secure low voltage conditions when supplying a rela tively large capacitance charging current.

Thus, in Fig. 3, if thecurveOAB representsthe. normal magnetization curve of the machine, and if the ellective cross section of th magnetic path is reduced, a second" curve u to the point D or to'drop down to zero andito build up in the opposite polar-' OB'F 'will'be obtained lying below the first curve, A still 'lower magnetization curve OB"G may be obtained b still further'in- A creasingthesaturation e ectsof the ma netic field circuits.- Thus, if the machine 15.

operated without excitation, three. voltages B, B'- and B may be obtained without any exciting current on the field salient-poles 5, one of which is shown, hav-.

having a field-magnet structure 4. The field magnet structure 4 is any desired excitation system such as a field magnet 'provided'with ing an exciting winding 6 thereon, and having an auxiliary winding 7 imbedded therein in such manner that the magnetizable material of the pole piece lies outside of, as well as inside of the auxiliary coil.

The auxiliary winding 7 may be convenient-ly applied b cutting out opposing notches 8 in the po e'piece 5 and cutting additional smaller notches 9 in the bottoms of the first-mentioned notches. The auxiliary winding may then be wound directly into the smaller notches 9 and the larger notches 8 may be closed by adding iron pieces 10 which may be held in place by dove-tails 11, as indicated. r 1 If the exciting fi'ux threading the armature and the field magnet structure is in the direction indicated by the arrows placed on the pole face, the auxiliary coil 7 may be energized either to increase the flux-density in the cross-sectional area a within the coil 7 as indicated by the full-line arrows or, if the excitation of the auxiliary coil is reversed,

the flux-density may be increased in the crosssectional areas b/2 afforded by the magnetizable members 10 as indicated by the dotted arrows.

It will be noted that the total fiux'is not varied by the auxiliary coil 7 except in so far as the reluctance of the magnetic path is Varied by the changes in the distribution of the flux therein. The cross-sectionalareas a and b may be made equal, in which case the change in flux would be substantially the same regardless of the polarity of the auxiliary exciting winding. As indicated in the drawing, however, the cross-sectional areas a and b may be different, in which case the reluctance of the field magnet structure may be changed simply by reversing the excitation of the auxiliary coil without varying the magnitude or the current flow therethrough.

In operation, the voltage of the machine will be normally'controlled byvarying the excitation of the main exciting windings 6.'

If, however, the excitation has been reduced to zero, or to a predetermined minimum value necessary to prevent asynchronous operatlon and a still further reduction in voltage is desired, the exciting coil 7 may be energized from a direct-current source 12 through a suitable rheostat 13, whereby the saturation of the cross-sectional area a or b may be vaa rheostat 16 and a regulating resistor 17.

The resistor 17 is shunted by a voltage regulator diagrammatically shown at 18, which may be in the form of a Tirrill regulator having a voltage coil 19 energized from one phase of the line. a

\Vhen the exciting current has fallen to a predetermined minimum value, current limit relay 20 operates to close contacts 21 and thus to connect the auxiliary winding 7 across the source 12. The regulator 19 will then take up the control increasing the main field excitation and controlling the same to maintain the desired voltage. Premature opening of the relay 20 is avoided by means-of auxiliary contacts 22 thereon, which close a shunt circuit around the energizing coil of the relay. The shunt circuit just mentioned is, in turn, opened by means of a second current limit switch 23 which operates to open the shunt ci' cuit around the switch 20 and thus to de-energize the auxiliary coil 7 after the main exciting current has increased to a predetermined value.

If, while the relay 20 is closed, the automatically regulated exciting current again falls to a predetermined low value, a relay 24 is actuated to reverse the polarity of the auxiliary winding 7 and, at the same time, to close a shunt circuit around the exciting coils of both the relays 23 and 24, said shunting circuit being opened, upon a predetermined increase of the main exciting current, by means of another current limit switch 25, as indicated.

. In operation, if it is desired to reduce the voltage, a regulating resistor 26 in .circuit with the voltage regulator 18 may be'operated to cause the regulatorto maintain a reduced voltage. The main exciting current through the windings 6 will then decrease until a point is reached at which the relay 20 will be released to energize the auxiliary coil 7 in such directions as to send a larger portion of the flux through the cross-section area b, as indicated by dotted arrows. The shape of the sat- I uration curve of the machine will thus be changed and the main field excitation will be slightly increased in {order to maintain the proper voltage, the relay being maintained 1n down position b means of the shunting circuit provided by t e auxiliary contacts 22, as

If while the voltage is held constant by the regulator, the leading current drawn by the .line should thereafter be reduced to such a ,point that the exciting current is automatically increased to a predetermined value, the relay 23 will operate to open the shunt around the exciting relay 20 and thus to cause said exciting coil to open the relay 20.- If, however, the leading wattless current increases while the voltage is maintained constant or,

' if the line reactance remains unchanged but the voltage is decreased bya further adjustment of the voltage regulating rheostat26 and the exciting current again falls to a predetermined value,- which might be. slightly lower than the value at which the relay 20 is re- .elased, the relay24 will drop toreverse the excitation of the auxiliary coil '(without changing the value of the current therethrough, thus causing the flux to'concentrate.

in the small area a, as indicated b the fullline arrows in Fig. 1, thereby still further increasing the reluctance'of the magnetic path and thus assisting to reduce the'line voltage, as explained in connection with Fig. 3.

While I have described my invention .in

.- particular as applied to an illustrative automatic system, it is obvious thatmany other arrangements of automatic control could be devised by those skilled in the art, and also that the operation can be controlled entirely by hand, as pointed out in the explanation of the principles. I desire, therefore, that my invention shall be construed to include all such; modifications and equivalents as fall within the language of the claims when read in the light of the prior-art.

I claim as my invention: 1. The combination with an alternatingcu'rrent line, of a synchronous dynamo-electrio machine comprising an armature connected to said line and a field member, means for supplying direct-current excitation to-said field member, means for controlling said excitation to maintain predetermined voltage conditions across the terminals of said ma chine and means for automatically increasing the reluctance of the magnetic circuits of said machine to prevent a decrease of the directcurrent excitation below a predetermined value.- a 4 I 2. The combination with an alternatingcurrent transmission line, of a synchronous dynamo-electric machlne connected thereto and a voltage-responsive mechanism'for lim- "i-ting the voltage thereof, said mechanism comprising means for variably exciting said machine from a maximum va e toa piedeable to control the voltage of said means, and

means for causin the flux distribution across a cross-section of the field-magnet member to vary in order to vary the effective cross-sectional area without varying the-magnetizing field ampere-turns. v 4. A synchronous machine having a magnetizable salient-pole field-magnet member, coils imbedded in said member in such manner that a complete magnetic circuit is provided outside and inside of said coils, the cross-sectional area of the magnetizable materialwithin said coils being different from the sum. of the area's outside thereof, and means for reversing the polarity of said coils.

"5. The combination with an alternatin 0 current line, of a synchronous dynamo-electric machine connectedthereto, an automatic volta-gewegulator associated with sai machine for controlling the voltage of sai line, and electro-responsive means responding to low excitation conditions in said machine for producing substantially the effect of an auxiliary 95 inductance connected in parallel to said machine to supply charging cur'rentto said line.

6: The combination with an alternatingcurrent line, of a synchronous dynamo-elec- I tric machine connected thereto, anautomatic voltage regulator associated with said maof said machine, auxiliary windings interlinked with only a portion of the cross-section of said poles, and means for exciting said auxiliary windings to maintain a minimum direct-current excitation in said main exciting windings. I

8. The combination with an alternator having an armature and a field member, of electro-respon'sive means *for temporaril saturating a portion of the magnetic circuit of saidialternator, said means being res'pon-' sive' to the'conditions producing a voltage rise at the armature terminals during leadingcurrent operation.

-9. The combination of a constant-voltage synchronous dynamo-electric machine comprising an armature and a field member, a main exciting winding for said field member, means for supplying direct current to said exciting winding, an auxiliary winding upon said field member to distort the flux distribution produced by said exciting winding without substantially afiecting the magneto-m0- tive force producing the main flux of said machine, means regulating the direct current supplied to the exciting windingto maintain constant voltage, and means for causing said machine to require a variable direct current excitation for the same armature current.

10. The combination with an alternatingcurrent line, of a synchronous dynamo-electric machinecomprisin an armature connected to said line and a eld member having a plurality of salient poles, main exciting windings surrounding said poles to-produce the main fiux of said machine, means for supplying direct current to said exciting windings, auxiliary direct-current excited windings on said field member to distort the flux distribution produced by said exciting windings without substantially affecting the magneto-motive force producing the main flux of said machine, said auxiliary windings being so mounted as to produce quantitatively different degrees of distortion for the same current flowing therein, depending on the polarity of the current flow therein.

a 11. The combination with a synchronous dynamo-electric machine and a long transmission line connected to said machine, of an exciter for said machine, voltage-responsive means for regulating the exciter current, and electro-responsive means for automatically changing the ratio between the combined exciting ampere-turns of field and armature and the terminal voltage of the machine in re sponse to conditions which would otherwise have necessitated a reduction of the exciter current below a predetermined value. v

12. The combination of a constant-voltage synchronous dynamo-electric machine comprising an armature and a fieldmembe'r, a main exciting winding for said field member, means for supplying direct current to said exciting winding, means ,for controlling said current to maintain predetermined voltage conditions in said machine, an auxiliary winding upon said field member in such position as, when energized to distort the flux distribution produced by aid exciting winding, and, electro-responsive'means for so exciting said auxiliary winding as to distort the flux distribution in the synchronous machine upon a decrease of the direct current in said exciting winding to a predetermined value below which stable operation of said machine would be jeopardized.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name, this 20th day of January,

CARL J. FECHHEIMER. 

